The Owl
by KAM wuz here
Summary: Outtake from "Why Trust You". Jareth traps Sarah in her nightmares. This is one of the nightmares he gives her


It was daytime, but the sky was dark gray. It looked like it might rain. The streets—well, there were no paved streets. It was all grass and mud. The town was small, quaint, where poor but hardworking people might accommodate.

Though, Sarah could find no people. She walked the streets—an occasional chicken or goat tromping through the mud to cross ways with her—and she walked nearly to the end of the town. There stood a fairly sized house, attached to stables and a barn. Finally, there, she found the entire town. Every person was crowded around the barn, babbling, mumbling, shouting, babies crying, pushing and shoving... Curiously, Sarah pushed herself into the chaotic crowd, towards the barn.

"What's going on?" she asked. No one answered her, but the muttering got louder around her. She tapped a man on the shoulder, waiting as he turned to her. "Excuse me, sir, but, what's going on here?"

"Oh, miss, it's just awful," he replied, his voice deep and British accented. "It's a _monster_, miss! A terrible, terrible beast; like a witch's! It took up refuge in the barn there."

Sarah looked skeptically at the barn. _What kind of 'monster' could it possibly be?_ she thought. She felt no fear, only intrigue. She started towards the barn, almost as if something was pulling her there.

"Oi, miss! Don't ya get too close!"

The distress was clearly greater closer to the barn. The townsmen were frightened and angry, trembling and pale, with hay-forks, spears, and axes waving around in the air. Public officials were scattered around the barn's doors. Sarah got as close to the entrance as she could without trying to look suspicious, and peered inside.

There was nothing unusual she saw at first. Stacks of corn, straw, and hay, a few clucking chickens, and a horse. There was a man inside, suited in armor, with a sword and a spear. He was climbing a ladder, almost halfway up to the cross-beams in the middle of the roof, where a barn owl had perched.

_Surely the owl couldn't be..._

The crowds behind Sarah riled up. "Be brave!" they cried. "You can do it!" Someone shouted, "He's as brave as St. George!" Murmurs of agreement rose up from the rest of them. And then, "Strike home! Strike home!" they shouted to the man.

The man had gotten to the top of the ladder, where the barn owl was. The owl stared on, unconcerned, and probably irritated. It titled its head, preened a bit, flapped its wings, and snapped its beak, giving a harsh cry of its own. "Tuwhit, tuwhoo!"

The would-be St. George on the ladder began to tremble. "Any one who was where I am would not be crying 'strike home!'" he rebuked. He raised his sword, falteringly, and tried to make a strike for the owl. Sarah cried out in horror. But the sword didn't touch the creature, and the man, half-fainting, descended the ladder.

The people were immediately outraged, and even more afraid. "There is no one left who will go up against the monster," they said. "We are doomed! It poisons the very strongest among us by just breathing on him! How can we go up against that?"

Meanwhile, the barn owl had locked eyes Sarah, ice blue eyes sending an immediate jolt through her. She ran into the barn, but stopped at the ladder, at a loss for what to do. Suddenly she realized that the owl's only chance was if the people would just leave it alone.

"What is _wrong _with you all?" she screamed at the townspeople. Tears were running down her face because of how frustrated she was. How could people be so stupid? And cruel? "This isn't a _monster_! It's just a harmless owl! Haven't you ever seen an owl before?"

They scoffed. "Harmless? What reason would we have to fear it then? It isn't harmless! It has nearly killed any of our men brave enough to try to slay it! It snaps and hisses, and cries out curses! We must be rid of it! We must destroy it!"

"No!" Sarah shot back, absolute. "You will not harm this creature! It's done nothing to you!"

There was a pause in the crowd, and then enraged and confused blather rose up in waves. "She isn't afraid of the monster," they said. "She must be a witch. We must burn her!"

"No," someone protested. "We must burn her monster first! We must be sure she can do no more harm with it."

Sarah gasped when a few of the townsfolk drew forward with lit torches. The fire was thrown into the hay, and at Sarah, and all four corners of the barn lit from the outside. The fire began to spread, and even if Sarah could have reached the doors, she couldn't have gotten out, for they had already shut and locked the doors on her.

"No! Please!" Sarah begged. "Please! Help me! Don't leave me in here!"

She looked up as the owl above her ruffled its feathers and fluttered its wings. The fire began to climb the walls.

"You're so _cruel_, Sarah."

She screamed and whirled around to face the voice that came from behind her. Jareth stood there, glowering at her, his own fire burning in his dark eyes.

"Jareth." Her voice was a mixture of anger, desperation, and relief. She sniffed and quickly wiped the tears and sweat from her face. "Jareth, help me, please. They're going to let me burn."

"Just as you let _me _burn, Sarah," he said. His voice was so cold, so venomous, it caught Sarah so off guard.

"Wh-what?"

He sharply pointed above him, quirking an eyebrow. "Why didn't you just let them burn the owl, precious? Hm? Why didn't you just stand back and let them handle it? Then you wouldn't be stuck here."

She glanced around fearfully. Now wasn't the best time for conversation. The fire was building, the heat becoming intense. "Jareth... B-because it's just an owl. They thought it was a monster, but it was just an owl."

One side of his mouth curled up in a harsh smirk. "_Just _an owl, was it? You knew that? Who taught you that, I wonder? Was it your parents? Your teachers? The ones who showed you a picture in a book when you were little and told you that it's just an owl, a harmless little bird?"

Sarah said nothing, but she hoped he had a point to come to before they were both swallowed by the flames.

"These townspeople were never taught the such," Jareth said. "They had never seen an owl before. It was fear of the unknown that made the owl a monster to them. What else could they have assumed it was? Even though the bird brought them no harm, it was easier to think it something evil. All the better to not have to worry about it when they destroyed it at last."

Though his voice was matter-of-factual, he was seething. Sarah wanted to take a step forward to put herself further from the fire growing behind her, scorching her skin, but didn't want to be closer to Jareth. Instead, Jareth stepped forward, and she retreated back the tiniest bit.

"Don't play stupid now, little girl," Jareth spat. "You learn lessons well. You know what I'm teaching you here. And you know damn well that you condemned me the first time you laid eyes on me."

She shook her head weakly. "N-no... I didn't..."

"You cowered before. I was frightening because you expected me to be. What else would you have thought of when it came to 'The Goblin King'? Someone who would smile and shake your hand? No. I was the villain from the moment I stepped into your bedroom, and you didn't know a thing about me."

"No," she said, beginning to sob. "You took my baby brother."

"Because you asked for him to be taken!"

She recoiled from his outburst, and the fire burned her elbow. She hissed from the pain and jerked forward, her body almost against Jareth's. "I didn't mean—! Jareth, _please_."

He abruptly grabbed her by the arm, and she bit back a cry. His expression was solemn. "You threw me into the fire, Sarah. You watched me burn. You won back your brother and defeated me, and nothing had ever felt more satisfying for you than defeating the villain and becoming the heroine. Just like the townspeople, a great relief you felt when you destroyed the owl. There was no more fearing that which you didn't know. Wasn't it easier to burn me than to learn about me?"

"That's not what I meant to do!" Sarah said. "I didn't mean—I wanted my brother back!"

"Do you know what I will find most satisfying, Sarah?"

She swallowed, and shook her head.

He grinned, and shoved her back into the fire.

* * *

So they set fire to the barn at all four  
corners, and with it  
the owl was miserably burnt.  
Let any one who will not believe it,  
go thither and inquire for himself.

-"The Owl" by the Grimm Brothers

* * *

**REMEMBER, IT'S *JUST* A DREAM!**

**phew.**

**Whatchya think?**


End file.
